British Columbia

Hospital staff doctors ready to quit

Nearly 200 hospital staff doctors are threatening to wind down their practices by the end of the month unless the provincial government meets their contract demands.

Nearly 200 hospital staff doctors are threatening to wind down their practices by the end of the month unless the provincial government meets their contract demands.

Their current contract expires July 1. The doctors, known as hospitalists, say they'll stop taking new patients and find other work if no new contract is signed by then.

The doctors take care of hospital patients who don't have their own doctor. They also step in for GPs who don't have hospital privileges.

Dr. Steve Ligertwood runs the hospitalist program at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, which he says is understaffed.

Because hospitalists earn less than general practitioners and work nights and weekends, it's difficult to find enough doctors to do the job, he says.

Ligertwood warns that shutting down the hospitalist program could lead to the closure of one Lower Mainland hospital.

"Hospitals that rely almost entirely on hospitalists for their function, for example, Eagle Ridge Hospital, they do not have other physicians that are working in the hospital that will be able to pick up patients, and I'm not sure they are going to be able to keep that hospital open."

The doctors want $135 an hour, which they say would make their wages comparable to a GP. They say the Health Ministry has offered them $111 an hour.

Health Minister George Abbott said the government has made a "very fair proposal" in an effort to reach a settlement.

"We are trying to deal very fairly with this issue with the hospitalists, but we're not going to be held for ransom on this issue."

Abbott also says he does not expect any hospitals will be forced to close if the hospitalists do start to withdraw their services.